How Hard Is It To Keep Marine Fish And Maintain Tank?

[Jessman]

Hi, I'm not thinking of keeping a marine tank or anything - but my sister and her boyfriend are!
I've heard it is a great commitment to have a marine tank, a lot more work than freshwater, so I've been trying to convince them not to, but of course they wont listen. They have no real experience of any kind of fish keeping. 
Can anyone try to explain the hard work and effort that goes into it and maintaining it, and the experience that is needed, thanks!
 
Jessman

 

[Jessman]

anyone??

 

[Donya]

Moved this to marine chat as it's not fish-specific and the chat section gets more traffic. The difficulty of a marine tank really depends on what you want to keep. A tank with just hermit crabs or even a fish-only system is a whole different beast to a full on reef tank. Also have a look here, which as links to things that give example maintenance routines and such:
 
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/410541-marine-aquarium-faq/

 

[DrRob]

The simple way to put them off, if that's what you want to achieve, is to point them at the marine emergencies sections and the price tag of the stock. Losses can be apocalyptic, and very expensive.

 

[Jessman]

Thanks guys
I dont want to necessarily put them off, just want them to take into thought how much work it actually takes, seeing as they dont have much time on their hands to start with. I think they should start with a freshwater aquarium first. 
They want the 'finding nemo' tank .. 

 

[techen]

Best be a good sized tank for clown fish as I would say a min of 100L or above.
 
Also best start pricing them up skimmers, water pumps, drilled tanks, heaters, sumps, lighting, live rock and sand... Gonna be a big price tag to start with.

 

[Jessman]

Veeeryy good point there techen

 

[CezzaXV]

Also, you're talking a minimum of 400L to keep Dory, a regal tang. Now, going by 1kg per 10L of water, you're talking £400 of live rock alone...

 

[Jessman]

Really? at my lfs, theres 2 clownfish and 2 really small dory's and the yellow one in a tank around 125l big :s if your right then it just goes to show how much they know

 

[CezzaXV]

Really? at my lfs, theres 2 clownfish and 2 really small dory's and the yellow one in a tank around 125l big

if your right then it just goes to show how much they know

Yup. You'd be surprised just how much space most marine fish need. I'm in the process of converting my 155L, and was shocked to see just how few fish can comfortably be kept in a tank that size. They're always small in the shops, but a lot of marine fish grow to be quite large and aggressive. In the case of regal tangs they grow to be a foot long and yellow tangs grow to 20cm.

A lot of LFS will keep fish in tanks they know to be too small so a lot of people think it's okay, but what a lot of people don't realise is that it's not intended to be a permanent home.

 

[Jessman]

wow i didnt know they could grow so big  
its not fair on the fish or the customers when lfs' do that, when the customer buys the fish and houses it in the same size tank and it later dies due to being too cramped in the tank after it grows, the customer will blame themselves, when really it is the stores fault for misconceiving the customers and not correctly informing them. 

 

[Donya]

The simple way to put them off, if that's what you want to achieve, is to point them at the marine emergencies sections and the price tag of the stock. Losses can be apocalyptic, and very expensive.

 
LOL well dangit I totally misread the original post. I missed the "not" on the second line. Sorry OP! 

 

[CezzaXV]

wow i didnt know they could grow so big

 
its not fair on the fish or the customers when lfs' do that, when the customer buys the fish and houses it in the same size tank and it later dies due to being too cramped in the tank after it grows, the customer will blame themselves, when really it is the stores fault for misconceiving the customers and not correctly informing them.

I would personally blame the customer for not knowing better, but then I suppose that comes from the viewpoint of myself knowing better. A lot of people are blissfully unaware that many fish shops will say anything to get money out of your pocket.

I go into a lot of pet shops and see a lot of rabbit hutches, hamster cages and the like that are clearly too small or otherwise wrong for the animals they're intended for, but there never seems to be the outrage that the pet shops would mislead you like that like they do with fish.

 

[Jessman]

yes exactly, what bugs me is that people will complain and make a fuss about someone housing a pet in a small environment, but if its a pet shop its ok?!

 

[techen]

Yes, It's fine for a pet shop to do this as they expect to turnover fish every so often.
 
Not only that but there filters are bigger than you and could quite happily filter any bioload they may have.
 
They do not buy in stock to keep them forever, Not like customers do.